Case studies / Marketing and Advertising Agencies
Case studyTimesheets to billing for an independent creative agency
An independent US creative and media agency connected timesheets, vendor costs and media spend to each job, billed within days of delivery and changed its pricing once it saw profit by job.
Overview
An independent brand, digital and media agency with offices in Chicago, Austin and Denver, working for consumer, healthcare and financial services clients on retainers and projects.
Scale. About 320 staff, 70 active clients, around 1,500 open jobs at any time and media buying on behalf of clients worth several times the agency's own fee income, delivered as a phased, multi-location programme.
The challenge
Billing lagged delivery. Account teams finished a campaign, then waited for timesheets, freelancer invoices, production bills and media confirmations before finance could raise an invoice. Some staff filled in timesheets at the end of the month from memory; others not at all. Invoices often went out six to eight weeks after the work was done, and clients queried items they had long forgotten approving.
Job profitability was a matter of opinion. Each office set up jobs and rates its own way. Time was recorded against broad codes like 'client service' rather than specific jobs, so finance could report profit by client at best, and only after the quarter closed. Account directors believed their retainers were profitable; finance was not sure.
Utilisation was measured differently in each office, and resourcing managers had no reliable view of who was busy and who was available, so freelancers were booked while permanent staff had capacity.
Vendor and media costs were the largest risk. Production companies, photographers and media owners billed the agency, which rebilled clients. Costs that were not rebilled, or rebilled late, came straight out of margin, and nobody tracked how often it happened.
The solution
Every piece of work now has a job with an approved estimate. Staff record time against it daily from their calendar or phone, and resourcing managers see bookings and availability across all three offices before they hire freelancers.
Vendor purchase orders and media bookings are raised against the job, so each cost is expected before its invoice arrives. When a vendor or media invoice is received it is matched to the order and flagged for rebilling straight away. Unbilled costs older than an agreed number of days appear on a weekly list for account teams.
Billing runs from the job: milestone and monthly invoices draw on approved estimates, time and matched costs, and clients see estimates, approvals and invoices in their portal. Finance and leadership see profit by job, client, office and service line each month. Shared master data for clients, roles, rates and vendors keeps the three offices consistent.
The engagement
- Six months
- Four specialists, with account management, production, media and finance leads
- Process mapping, time capture, job costing and profitability, utilisation, vendor and media cost control, billing and client portal, shared master data, pilot and phased rollout.
Integrations
- Time and expense capture
- Billing and client portals
- Banks and payments
- Management reporting
How we delivered it
- 01
Map the work with the people who do it
Five weeks
We followed jobs from brief to invoice in all three offices with account managers, producers, creatives, media buyers, resourcing managers and the billing team. With the managing partners we agreed the scope: time capture, job costing, utilisation, vendor and media cost control and billing.
- 02
Design common processes and integrations
Nine weeks
Producers and account managers designed one job structure with estimate, phases and roles. Creatives asked for time capture that took seconds, so time is recorded from calendar entries and a phone app rather than a weekly form. Finance linked every vendor purchase order and media booking to a job.
- 03
Pilot in one office
Six weeks
The Austin office piloted with its healthcare clients. Early weeks showed job codes too detailed to use and media confirmations arriving in formats that could not be matched automatically. The codes were simplified and media feeds standardised.
- 04
Roll out in waves and track results
Six weeks
Chicago and Denver followed. Leadership reviewed billing lag, utilisation, unbilled costs and profit by job monthly.
Results
- Billing became faster
- Profit visible by job, client and office
- Vendor and media costs rebilled on time
- Teams worked from the same data across three offices
Billing became faster. Most jobs are now invoiced within days of a milestone, client queries have fallen because approvals are visible in the portal, and unbilled vendor and media costs are caught weekly rather than discovered at year end.
Seeing profit by job changed the agency's pricing. Several retainers turned out to be absorbing far more senior time than they paid for, while project work was more profitable than assumed. The agency re-scoped those retainers at renewal, introduced rate cards for out-of-scope requests and priced new pitches on actual effort.
Utilisation is measured the same way everywhere, freelancer spend has fallen where staff had capacity, and leadership reviews results monthly.
Our favourite client turned out to be our least profitable one. That conversation was easier to have with the numbers in front of us.
What made the difference
The agency saw profit by job and changed its pricing. Involving the people who do the work early made adoption easier: creatives shaped a time capture that takes seconds, so they use it.
